Stetzer and Fitch: What is Missional?

If you have been around me much in the past 3-4 years you have probably heard me refer to the word “missional” or “missional church.”  It is because I have been dreaming, eating, and sleeping the concept as a part of my paradigm for six years.  Though, I must say, the concept was something I knew about before I even knew the word “missional” existed.  The IMB trained me to think and do church planting in Southern Africa missionally before the word “missional” was vogue.  Now it’s the word.  It’s the new catch-all-hot-topic-buzz-word out today to describe churches that are seeking to be a church and not simply exist as a church in their communities.  There is still a lot of debate as to what is missional, who is missional and what does it take to be missional.

Fifty percent of my doctorate is seeking to upack and identify leading missional churches from coast to coast in America that are being missional.  You can think of missional as the lens through which you see your culture that will then influence the way you approach your ministry (my very elementary description). The culture shapes the ways and means of ministry.

I came across a good video that shows you in a glimpse what I am attempting to study in full.  It is an interview between a couple of guys that I have read their writings and had the privilege to interact with on various levels.  They are seeking to give definition to a very slippery topic.  I think they do a great job at showing the viewers the dynamic nature of and the diversity within the topic.  Plus they are so eloquent in their speech- they are good teachers.  I only wish I could communicate as clearly about the topic as they do:).

Watch and learn.

Ed Stetzer and David Fitch – a missional conversation Part One from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Missional Churches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.